Author Archives: Soccer America

According to The Globe and Mail, “barring a last-minute snag, the owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club will be awarded a Major League Soccer expansion franchise by the end of this month,” reports Matthew Sekeres, citing two unnamed sources that have current team owner Greg Kerfoot in final negotiations with MLS Commissioner Don Garber. […]

The 2009 edition of the Concacaf Gold Cup is set to be played in a record 13 different U.S. cities, kicking off at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on July 3 and concluding with the championship on July 26 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The goal of the ambitious Coast-to-Coast plan, […]

"I do not want to overact on this situation. Ashley [Cole] will be in the squad for tomorrow. He has publicly apologized about his conduct and behavior to the police officer, and it is a rather private matter. We have internal discipline, and this is to be considered internal. I have spoken firmly with him […]

"Watching her play, the way that she plays with such passion, such energy, such a love for the game, and so much creativity, I found myself being glued to the TV set. There were three things I wanted to accomplish last summer when I was in Beijing. One was to win a gold medal. Two […]

"There is a great probability that Beckham will stay at Milan until June. I am very optimistic. All that is missing is a signature and we need to iron out a couple of things. In any case we are almost there. We are on the right track and the signature could arrive in a few […]

While he enters the 2009 season as the Red Bulls incumbent keeper, having been between the posts for the last six games of a season that ended with an unlikely appearance in the MLS Cup final, 23-year-old Danny Cepero “doesn’t expect the starting job to be handed to him on a silver platter,” writes Michael […]

Former on-field legend Diego Maradona is committed to similar success just off the field as the new coach of the Argentina, speaking out Thursday to TyC TV to defend his credentials and praise both the players and former Argentina coach and current general manager Carlos Bilardo. “I have proved to myself that I can lead […]

In a feel-good story about “growth, discipline and the amazing healing power of the second chance,” the Houston Chronicle’s Richard Justice, um, chronicles the turnaround tale of Dynamo backup goalkeeper Tyler Deric. Signed by Houston as part of their Academy team, Deric’s MLS career was quickly derailed when a significant lack of commitment caused coach […]

With his stint in Germany coming to a rather unceremonious end, Landon Donovan looks to be back in the USA by early next week, giving him just under two weeks to get re-acclimated to L.A. life (although that may only take lunch at Rubio’s and a walk down the Redondo Beach pier) before the Galaxy’s […]

With a nod to “American Idol,” USA Today’s Beau Dure details the MLS expansion team selection process that has become a “months-long saga in which contenders are slowly but steadily eliminated” and breaks down the final four city bids that remain eligible for teams in 2011. With the recent removal of a Miami bid, and […]

“We are going there to win and we are going for it alone. France, a great soccer nation with 2,500,000 registered footballers, must go it alone in this conquest. There is a common desire of everyone in soccer [in France] to do it and do it alone.” French soccer federation president Jean-Pierre Escalettes, emphatically (albeit […]

“I watched the matches that were broadcast in Russia whenever possible. But to tell the truth, it seemed less difficult on TV. Only now do I understand how dynamic and hard the soccer is here. Now I would like to score as soon as possible. Everybody expected me to score in my very first match […]

br> "The people who are collected together to judge racist incidents maybe don’t attach a priority to it. Their own education as human beings is not sufficient to be sensitive to racism and firm enough against it. What is important is to have people with different horizons in the corridors of power.” Former French international […]

Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette are having a hard time convincing an investor consortium from Kuwait that the English Premier League team is worth the $625 million that the two American businessman have valued it at. According to an ESPN Soccernet report, consortium spokesman and possible investor Abdulla Al-Sager admitted that ongoing negotiations […]

“Colombian soccer champion America de Cali are first to admit cocaine dollars had a hand in their sporting heyday. But after years of paying the price, they’re trying to wipe the slate clean,” writes Reuters’ Helen Popper in an inspiring report on the team’s (and the city’s) efforts to make a new name for themselves […]